sustainability Article Towards Sustainable Concrete Composites through Waste Valorisation of Plastic Food Trays as Low-Cost Fibrous Materials Hossein Mohammadhosseini 1, * , Rayed Alyousef 2, * and Mahmood Md. Tahir 1 Citation: Mohammadhosseini, H.; Alyousef, R.; Md. Tahir, M. Towards Sustainable Concrete Composites through Waste Valorisation of Plastic Food Trays as Low-Cost Fibrous Materials. Sustainability 2021, 13, 2073. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su13042073 Academic Editor: Paola Villoria Sáez Received: 26 January 2021 Accepted: 12 February 2021 Published: 15 February 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Institute for Smart Infrastructure and Innovative Construction (ISIIC), School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Skudai 81310, Johor, Malaysia; [email protected] 2 Department of Civil Engineering, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Alkharj 16273, Saudi Arabia * Correspondence: [email protected] (H.M.); [email protected] (R.A.) Abstract: Recycling of waste plastics is an essential phase towards cleaner production and circular economy. Plastics in different forms, which are non-biodegradable polymers, have become an indispensable ingredient of human life. The rapid growth of the world population has led to increased demand for commodity plastics such as food packaging. Therefore, to avert environment pollution with plastic wastes, sufficient management to recycle this waste is vital. In this study, experimental investigations and statistical analysis were conducted to assess the feasibility of polypropylene type of waste plastic food tray (WPFT) as fibrous materials on the mechanical and impact resistance of concrete composites. The WPFT fibres with a length of 20 mm were used at dosages of 0–1% in two groups of concrete with 100% ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and 30% palm oil fuel ash (POFA) as partial cement replacement. The results revealed that WPFT fibres had an adverse effect on the workability and compressive strength of concrete mixes. Despite a slight reduction in compressive strength of concrete mixtures, tensile and flexural strengths significantly enhanced up to 25% with the addition of WPFT fibres. The impact resistance and energy absorption values of concrete specimens reinforced with 1% WPFT fibres were found to be about 7.5 times higher than those of plain concrete mix. The utilisation of waste plastic food trays in the production of concrete makes it low-cost and aids in decreasing waste discarding harms. The development of new construction materials using WPFT is significant to the environment and construction industry. Keywords: sustainable concrete; waste valorisation; waste plastic food tray; mechanical properties; impact resistance 1. Introduction Sustainability is the primary concern of today’s life, which is related to the persistence of the environment by preserving natural recourses, sustainable development, and envi- ronmental consciousness in modern construction works. Construction materials are very substantial, as the massive amount of raw materials and energy is used for their production, as stated by Gupta et al. [1]. These activities require considerable quantities of energy and generate a massive amount of greenhouse gasses. Therefore, the energy used and the emissions of CO 2 in the manufacturing process of construction materials have been getting attention recently. In this regard, terms such as green materials, sustainable development, and eco-efficiency construction are becoming more extensively acknowledged and used [2]. Zhao et al. [3] and Majhi and Nayak [4] stated that the consumption of waste and recycled materials has become an alternative solution to reduce the utilisation of raw materials in construction industries. This usage of waste materials could significantly help reduce disposal and landfilling spaces, decrease the environmental pollution, and lower cost of construction. Accordingly, green production awareness inspires the construction industries by using waste materials such as aggregates, cementing materials, and fibrous materials instead of natural resources. Sustainability 2021, 13, 2073. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042073 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
Towards Sustainable Concrete Composites through Waste Valorisation of Plastic Food Trays as Low-Cost Fibrous Materials
Apr 28, 2023
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Related Documents
